Kaypro Computers

Castles built on sand

In the Fall of 1983, Kaypro Computers were fairly new on the market.

They came from a company called Non-linear Sytsems of Solana Beach, CA. Non-linear was a pioneering manufacturer of voltage meters and other small testing instruments. When the Osborne (luggable) computer was introduced, Non-linear management felt they could make a competitive unit. Instead of Osborne's 4-3/4" screen, the Kaypro boasted a 5-1/2" screen. instead of the expensive-to-tool plastic case, Kaypro' case was folded heavy-gauge aluminum sheet -- even the keyboard housing. Engineering expense was minimal. Insiders informed me that the circuit pattern of the main logic board of the computer was simply copied from a board being sold commercially by another company -- by putting the other board in a Xerox machine to create the circuit pattern.

The patriarch of Non-linear Systems was Andy Kay. He brought in his son to head up marketing, and his son decided to copy the Maxell tape ads that were then popular -- the one with the listener in the chair being blown back by sound from a speaker. The junior Kay jumped on a plane to New York to speak with the photographer about doing something similar. Unfortunately, that was the entire plan. The photographer wanted to see a layout or an idea, and Kay had none. They ended up sketching out an office situation on the spot where the user of the Kaypro appeared to be levitating and blowing air out at all the other folks in the office. An odd image, at best. (And known not-too-fondly by some as the 'flying fart ad'.)

Kaypro engaged a media buying service -- Western Media -- to place the ad. Western suggested that Kaypro could use an ad agency, and referred (for a fee) Della Femina, Travisano & partners of California, Inc. Della Femina, in turn, asked me to manage the account.

Our first problem was to identify the advantage of the Kaypro. While the Sales Manager at Non-linear enjoyed standing on top of the computer to demonstrate its robustness, the desirability of this product feature was not widely recognized.

At the time. both Apple and IBM were advertising low prices ($1,265 and $1,355) for their cpmputers. But that price only got you a CPU. In neither case could you get information in or out of the "computer" you bought at that price. Instead, a buyer had to add a screen, a storage device, keyboard and software, making the advertised price an outright lie.

This created an opportunity for Kaypro, which was a complete computer and even included productivity software at a starting price of $1595.

The creative director of Della Femina in Los Angeles at the time was famous for collaborating with a commercial director named Joe Sedelmaier. A 'hot' commercial director at the time, Sedelmaier was famous for casting unique faces and creating silly situations that were both funny and memorable (most famous being the 'Where's the beef' campaign).

Della Femina's creative director scripted a commercial very 'reminiscent' (industry term for copy) of two prior Sedelmaier ads. It showed a consumer confronting the problems of trying to buy a computer at the advertised price, and being hit with the 'complete' price. The situation was Kafka-esque. With Joe's casting, cinematography and direction, it promised to be hilarious.

But I didn't like it. The proposed commercial made me uneasy. At that time -- 1983 -- personal computers were still very new to most consumers. People were actually afraid of them. This concept, in my mind, would not only exacerbate that unease, it would drive prospects to the leading brand names (IBM and Apple at the time) and away from the new, unknown Kaypro.

The proposed commercial (and a second that was a slight variation on the theme) was very popular within Della Femina's L.A. office, which apparently was fearful that their "reel" was getting a bit tired. There was a lot of pressure to go with the new commercials, and they were ultimately presented to the Kaypro people without my consent and approved for production. Sorry to say, I went along with it, thinking the name recognition and positive impact of the humor might make up for the negative implications of the messaage.

I was wrong.

The Kafka-esque commercial was produced. It was very funny. It won a Clio. It enhanced Della Femina's reel.

It seriously hurt Kaypro.

Kaypro only had the money to run the commercials in eight major markets. For the rest of the U.S., the campaign was carried by a print ad that had a high volume of information and positioned kaypro as a knowledgeable source for information on configuring a personal computer.

In the eight markets where the commercial ran, Kaypro's share of market fell by an average of 16%. In the U.S. overall, share rose. But at that time, personal computer purchasing was highest in major metropolitan areas.

Clearly, understanding the prospect's hopes and fears is a key to good advertising. Communicating fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) is a very dangerous strategy -- one that usually helps the market leader.

I left Della Femina to go to the local agency that had just won the Microsoft account, but I later heard that Kaypro had refused to pay for their TV commercials, feeling they had been promised a sales increase if they approved them.

No doubt, Kaypro was hurt by this TV campaign, but they recovered for a while by floating on the rising tide of PC demand. They focused on production, distribution and product development, and spent very little on advertising. Ultimately, the company was killed by a raft of other problems centered around quality control, inability to ramp up production levels, questionable accounting, poor inventory control, random product design, etc. They ultimately failed as an independent maker of PCs and lived on in name, relabeling cheap PC clones until filing chapter 11 bankruptcy.